Macroscopicity of Mechanical Quantum Superposition States

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimentally accessible measure to quantify the macroscopicity of superposition states in mechanical quantum systems, based on macrorealist extensions of quantum mechanics, enabling comparison across experiments.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, objective measure for the macroscopicity of mechanical quantum superpositions, grounded in observable effects of macrorealist modifications.

Findings

Provides a practical method to quantify macroscopicity in experiments.

Facilitates comparison of different mechanical superposition states.

Links macroscopicity to observable consequences of macrorealist theories.

Abstract

We propose an experimentally accessible, objective measure for the macroscopicity of superposition states in mechanical quantum systems. Based on the observable consequences of a minimal, macrorealist extension of quantum mechanics, it allows one to quantify the degree of macroscopicity achieved in different experiments.